Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu, 29 Apr 1993 Volume 3 : Issue 29 Today's Topics: Coexisting Comanche Mission Add-On Disks GRAVIS BBS Some more new-user GUS comments... uk disks *really* on their way? Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #28 Meta-info about the GUS, this digest, and other GUS resources can be found at the end of the Digest. Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 28 Apr 1993 13:07:29 -0500 (EST) From: STU_JABIRCHE@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU Subject: Coexisting Message-ID: <01GXJNFC42J68YG1RJ@VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU> Well, becuase of the generosity of a friend with an extra sound card (he has 8 of them), I now have a soundblaster pro and a gravis ultrasound peacefully coexisting in my pc (486dx33). Windows seems to have no problems with it, in fact, it sends sounds to whatever card is not occupied, so I can have multiple sounds at startup with wired for sound pro and Ez SoundFx. The midi mapper routes all midi to the gravis (thank allah, or whoever) and I no longer have to use sbos in DOS, although I have with success. Those games that sound better with SBOS (like Alone In The Dark) I use SBOS on, otherwise, I use the SBPro. I have yet to encounter a single problem with my setup. All it required was setting the Gravis' address to 210 and making sure the IRQs were different. Voila! Now all I need is an LAPC until the GUS has a Gen Midi Driver. :) -=Marc=- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 11:58:58 MES From: fischer@tmpmbx.netmbx.de (Axel Fischer) Subject: Comanche Mission Add-On Disks Message-ID: Hi, Just bought the new Comanche Mission disks. 3 new campains. Everything works perfect with SBOS and without the Comanche patch from archive.epas.utoronto.ca. What's that patch for? -Axel ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 93 19:50:34 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: GRAVIS BBS Message-ID: <9304261950.A0702wk@gravis.com> GRAVIS BBS - IMPORTANT ====================== If you haven't heard already Gravis is moving into a newer, bigger building. This move will be taking place the weekend of April 30th. The BBS will be offline from Friday April 30th to Monday May 3rd. The phone number will be the SAME (604) 431-5927. If you try and call between these times you will simply get RING, RING, RING.... We should be back online by Monday afternoon. The BBS will be going to 6 lines, 4 public access and 2 mail ONLY. This should help relieve the congestion. While the BBS is down I'll loose most of my network links. So don't be surprised if it takes a little longer for me to get back to you. I'll be cross posting this message to a half dozen networks including FidoNET and InterNET. That should cover most of the modem community. C'ya John Smith - SysOp --- ~ QMPro 1.02 05-8925 ~ ... Drop your carrier ... we have you surrounded! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 17:35:26 GMT+0200 From: Walter Prins Subject: Some more new-user GUS comments... Message-ID: <9304281535.AA28775@itu2.sun.ac.za> Hi. I've recently gotten my grubby mits on one of these wonder cards... I've seen a LOT of hype and debate on the Usenet and on this mailing digest and had actually been wondering if it's really as good as everyone was claiming. Well... It's better! (Well almost) I am really and truly very impressed with the card, especially considering its relatively low price. It is silent (stone silent compared to my old SB), has exceptionally smooth and realistic sound reproduction and generally it kicks any other soundcard's behind into hyperspace... (in it's priceclass of course, but even beyond.) Some things I've noticed though: Gusmod STILL have a very irritating buzz, suposedly to have been fixed, but it's still very much there on my GUS. (& GTSR is *very* crash prone) However it's the best modplayer for PC I've heard. (soundwize that is) SBOS V2.04 is a huge improvement over 1.x versions and generally sounds very close to the original SB. However, I've noticed that in general instructions on the command line (like -o1) is given as seperate options if more than one is required (for example sbos -o1 -o2). However, it doesn't seem to work properly! For example Spear of Destiny (And Wolfenstein for that matter) has some sounds missing, especially in the Main menu. (The sound made when you move the gun pointer). The instructions (came with the GUS) recommends -o2 , however, this is meant for V1.x. so perhaps it's not applicable to V2.x. By trial and error however I've discovered that sbos -o13 (take note: not sbos -o1 -o3) works best. ALL sounds are there, the music sounds even more realistic and generally it seems to be more compatible to most things than anything else. (I might add that typing sbos -o4 also have the effect of -o13. Weird...) Mostly installation was pretty easy, although it wasn't completely without problems. I had a joystick port conflict (initially) and some other IRQ conflicts a bit later on. It's (hopefully) sorted out now. Some more comments if I have later. Lets just say I'm a converted GUSser, and it really is a state of mind... (I got *very* little sleep for about 5 days after getting the thing...) I do hope that a general SDK (cheap if not free) will be released soon. It's rather frustrating not to have the programming info for a piece of (excellent) hardware. BTW (Gravis, you listening?) I've been wondering if it would be very difficult to (eventually) extend SBOS to emulate the SB-Pro? (Surely something like this would be another nail in the SB coffin. ) Apologies for the length of this letter... Ciao --------------- Walter Prins Email: prins@cs.sun.ac.za University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. prins@itu.sun.ac.za Department of Computer Science, 3d year. What is better than presence of mind in a railway accident? -- Absence of body. - Punch Magazine, 1849 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 15:30:43 BST From: "James Andrews, User Support" Subject: uk disks *really* on their way? Message-ID: <11085.9304281430@uk.ac.uel.sol1> I just phoned Optech the uk supplier for GUS and spoke to the salesmanger and he said that the upgrade disks ( 2.05 + powerchords + midisoft ) were being packed right there and then. This combined with the other rumours floating around looks good, yeah? As for the developers kit, last week Kim Bulton at Optech (sounding harrassed) said that yes, there were a few of the new no non-disclosure kits in the warehouse but that supply from Gravis outstripped demand here in the uk. The other guy I spoke to today confirmed this story. Ive always found Optech to be reasonably straight with me and friendly. If you are in the uk and havent registered your GUS yet, send the card to them. james@sol1.uel.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: 28 Apr 93 13:07:43 SAT From: PATRICIO@odie.ee.wits.ac.za Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #28 Message-ID: > The pack contains the five v2.04 installation disks, along with an extra > HD disk labelled 'GUS bonus software'. This latter disk is installed > separately to provide PowerChords, Midisoft Recording Session, Gusmod, some > extra MIDs, and a windows utility to convert sound > files between the .WAV .VOC & .SND formats. > > I'm currently having some probloms with the patch cacheing in Midisoft so > I hope you other GUS owners get your copies soon and can give me a hand! > > -Simon > Please can you upload the bonus disk to an ftp site (preferably epas) for us unfortunate souls who have not (and may not due to our geographical location) receive them. This would be greatly appreciated by myself and thousands of GUS owners. And hey, we may even be able to sort out your patch catching problems in Midisoft for u! Ciao, mille grazie. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Patricios Electrical Engineering Wits University Sunny South Africa Internet: patricio@odie.ee.wits.ac.za Do it NOW!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 10:47:09 PDT From: acharjee@wwtc.timeplex.com (michael acharjee 443 5725 wwtc ) Message-ID: <9304281747.AA04063@wwtc.timeplex.com> I loaded in 1Meg DRAM's and had the same problem. I unloaded SBOS (SBOS -f) and all the DRAM's passed with no problems. Seems like SBOS loads to the upper memory which causes a conflict. ------------------------------ Date: (null) From: (null) > I experienced the same problem: Ultraram and Setgus telling me that I > have a DRAM-failure while swapping the RAM's doesn't help anything. > After some research I found out that the failure is in the highest Hold on to your hats!) > 128K of the memory independent of the IC's, so it's problably a wrong Well, it can't be that in my case though, as the GUS works fine with I would if I could. the old set of disks (1.22) UNLESS (John Smith, you still out there?) GRAVIS did something pretty nasty to the new set of disks, OR, SETGUS.EXE and ULTRINIT.EXE, because I can't load anyone of them AT ALL. > So please everyone try the Ultraram or the Setgus (advanced- > diagnostics) to find out if Your ultrasound functions O.K. ::::: (oh, by the way .. I guess the next digest won't be making it, I would if I could. so I better save this letter too and re-mail it again. Isn't it strange that both times the Digest have been completely erased or whatever, previously, I sent stuff to it. And that's the ONLY times I did send something too. So I better save this one or just mail it twice and see what happens Then to the digest. -/- Erik (with his v1.22 disks, no new disks either, though I've sent in new set of disks for us?) the registration card, in Sweden. JS/GRAVIS/Oracle - what's the deal with Sweden & Logitech/Gravis? Who arranges the the deal with Sweden & Logitech/Gravis? Who arranges the Ultrasound Daily Digest ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V3 #29 *************************************